世論 What Japan Thinks

Much like Coke or Pepsi or Kanto versus Kansai, glossy versus matte LCDs, the subject of a recent iShare survey, is an eternal battle with entrenched favourites.

Demographics

Between the 13th and 18th of January 2010 500 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 59.8% of the sample were male, 31.2% in their twenties, 32.0% in their thirties, and 36.8% in their forties.

I’m firmly in the matte camp, although I’ve never actually used a glossy… When I bought my monitor they had both a glossy and matte version on offer, and whilst the colours from glossy were very vivid, I’d heard a lot about issues with reflections, and anyway the matte was cheaper…

Oh, and just to mention the iPad for the first time on this blog (although no doubt they’ll be a million and one surveys over the next couple of months), I hear a lot of people imagining how professionals in the field will use one, but it has a glossy screen which along with the LCD makes it a no-go – and that’s also ignoring that it’s not ruggedised, water resistant or even terribly sturdy-looking.

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Having seen at the end of last year that over three in four are hurting financially, iShare followed up with a look at taking on a second job.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of January 2010 495 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 33.5% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

16.1% of the men unemployed seems a very high percentage, and with only 4% between the figures for those in their twenties versus those in their thirties and forties, one cannot really say it is due to student numbers. I’d love to see the age figures broken down by sex just to see if there’s a trend.

I suppose I should count What Japan Thinks as my second job, and I wish I could say that I’m using the earnings to save for travel, but sadly it barely makes enough to cover my living expenses gap…
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Juki Net is a national scheme that is basically a voluntary ID card used mostly to simplify access to local government services, so a new service introduced this month is machines at convenience stores that can issue official residence certificates, seal registration forms, etc, so this was the topic of a recent survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 22nd of December 2009 and 4th of January 2010 561 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 32.6% in their twenties, 32.3% in their thirties, and 35.1% in their forties.

Here’s a very interesting background article on what exactly Juki Net is and what concerns people have regarding it.
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iShare once again take an interesting look at a corner of Japanese life, this time the matter of fortune telling.

Demographics

Between the 8th and 14th of January 2010 567 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 34.7% in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 34.6% in their forties.

I must say I was surprised at how low the percentage of blood type believers were – I would have guessed that the majority believed, but perhaps it’s just that blood type is just an easy conversation starter, the equivalent of “What’s your sign?”
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Here’s an interesting look with iShare at driving, looking in particular at poor driving habits.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 7th of January 2010 495 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.4% of the sample were male, 33.5% in their twenties, 31.9% in their thirties, and 34.5% in their forties.

In Q2SQ1 the issue of “paper drivers” is highlighted – paper drivers is a Japanese expression (it’s actually the English words that are used) that indicates people who are qualified on paper but never actually do much if any driving. I’m probably borderline paper myself as my driving is limited to renting a car just a handful of times every year.

In Q2SQ2, I wonder if we can assume that the 25% who drive to the speed limit are regular speeders? On empty motorways I might occasionally wander one or two kilometres per hour over the limit, but on busy urban highways and surface streets I do usually run just a little bit under the limit and I certainly do always maintain my distance from the car in front.
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For a change, this recent survey from iShare into music downloading laws found a significant number willing to admit their thievery.

Demographics

Between the 5th and 8th of January 2010 443 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 58.7% of the sample were male, 30.7% were in their twenties, 30.7% in their thirties, and 38.6% in their forties.

As I’m not the sort of person who downloads music willy-nilly just for the sake of filling up their iPod, I’ve never downloaded more than just a dodgy track or two. I’m probably also being a fuddy-duddy by saying that the iPod and said illegal downloading just because one can is a behaviour I cannot condone in the slightest, and I’m sure in some way contributes towards the youth of today having the attention span of a goldfish. I used to play just the one CD or tape for about a week or more, but when I last had my hands on a SonyPod, I found myself filling it up with all my CDs then spending more time skipping than listening. Oh, and the software was useless and at least twice wiped its own database.

Anyway, back to the survey. This month the law has changed such that downloading illegally uploaded contents is now illegal.
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iShare recently published a curious set of results from a survey they conducted into nameplates outside Japanese homes.

Demographics

Between the 17th and 22nd of December 2009 531 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.2% of the sample were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.3% in their thirties, and 32.4% in their forties.

One interesting fact I recently learnt about Google Street View Japan is that in responce to claims about privacy infringement, as well as blurring out faces and car registration plates as they do elsewhere, they also blanked out nameplates for Japan only.
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With more and more web sites supporting the use of icons to represent users (including this site and the Gravaters) in the comments, there is perhaps more opportunities to display an avatar, the subject of this survey from iShare.

Demographics

Between the 21st and 25th of December 2009 505 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 56.2% of the sample were male, 38.8% in their twenties, 27.9% in their thirties, and 33.3% in their forties.

I’d have liked to have seen a question on whether people prefer to use an avatar that looks like them or just an actual photo. Looking at my Google Friend Connect (see the bottom of the right sidebar) set of icons, I see the vast majority are actual photos and there might be just one that is a look-alike image (), but since Japanese on the whole feel resistance to revealing names, one cannot make assumptions about Japanese avatar usage based on my primarily western set.

I’ve seen adverts somewhere for generating an avatar based on a photograph you send them, but I’ve not looked into the price.
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This recent survey from iShare into web browsers contains some fascinating and surprising data on preferences amongst a quite experienced sample of internet surfers.

Demographics

Between the 14th and 17th of December 2009 468 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.3% of the sample were male, 33.3% in their twenties, 34.6% in their thirties, and 32.1% in their forties.

As you can see from Q1, most of the sample have over 10 years of web use under their belts, yet although one associates Internet Explorer with newbies and Firefox with experts, the data shows Explorer about a third ahead of Firefox.

Sleipnir is basically a new skin for Internet Explorer, but it does seem quite popular in my office, and Lunascape is a three-in-one Internet Explorer plus Firefox plus Google Chrome/Safari.

Of course, Opera is the best web browser by far.
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With Avatar in 3D in the cinemas and doing rather well, and a big push from television makers towards getting 3D into the living room, I’m surprised that it’s taken quite this long for a survey on 3D to appear.

Demographics

Between the 2nd and 7th of December 2009 541 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 55.6% of the sample were male, 35.1% in their twenties, 28.75 in their thirties, and 36.2% in their forties.

I went to see Up (or “Old Man Carl’s House Flies in the Sky”, as it was rendered in Japanese) in 3D and the glasses were rather uncomfortable, and I had to spend periods of time holding them away from the bridge of my nose as they hurt. I also failed to appreciate any 3D whatsoever, except for background blurring in one or two scenes. I later went to see Avatar in 2D as I didn’t fancy another two and half hours of the specs.
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